After many years of swearing that I would never, ever, ever run because running just hurts...I was inspired by two coworkers to sign up for the Disneyland Half Marathon this upcoming Labor Day weekend. A moment of temporary insanity. It was my plan to just walk the entire thing (as coworker #1 had done, only 4 months after getting a coronary stent), with the only goal to finish within the 3 1/2 hour time limit. But as I was starting out with my training, I looked into the Jeff Galloway training program which was on the Disney website. And I thought - surely I can run for 10 seconds at a time, as he suggests for beginners. Plus his training program only has you training only 30 minutes two days a week plus a longer run on the weekend. I should be able to combine that with cycling. So I modified his schedule to work around some cycling events, bought some good running shoes & sports bras, splurged on a Forerunner running watch, and off I went.

I dabbled a bit in Feb/March, and it took a couple of weeks before I felt that running (even 10 seconds at a time) wasn't just painful work. I also had to work through some IT band issues after an intense cycling weekend in March (resolved with hip strengthening exercises suggested by my son who is an athletic trainer), and got on a regular run training schedule by April. I am enjoying this much more than I ever expected! My regular training "runs" are now at 15 sec run / 45 sec walk intervals, and I'm probably ready to increase the run portion. My average pace is certainly not going to break any records, but it is very gradually getting a little faster and on target to comfortably finish the Half within the time limits. And... (drumroll)... I did my first 10K this weekend! Since it was literally all downhill, I was able to do a 30/45 interval consistently (until the very end when I picked it up a bit). I finished in 1:09 (11:14 pace, yay for the downhill!) and felt good (not wiped out) at the end. What a blast that was!

So, a new fan of the Galloway run-walk-run method here! I hope I can keep up the training throughout the summer (heat is an issue for me) and finish the Disneyland Half. It's fun to have a new challenge!